The report Tuesday night said Wright intervened to have Duffy reimburse $90,172 in secondary living expenses associated with his home in Kanata, Ont., while auditors from Deloitte were still examining his claims.
CTV cited sources saying Wright had a lawyer work out a “letter of understanding” with Duffy in February that offered financial help and promised to take it easy on him if he reimbursed the funds.
The Senate committee on internal economy, budgets and administration that initiated the probe into secondary living expenses did end up going easier on Duffy in its report on his living expenses tabled last week, avoiding the same conclusions reached about the clarity of rules in otherwise identical reports on Sen. Mac Harb and Sen. Patrick Brazeau.
Andrew MacDougall, a spokesman for Harper, told the Star in an email Tuesday night that Duffy had paid back the expenses and that “no taxpayer funds were used”.
Duffy could not be reached for comment.
Earlier Tuesday, Brazeau’s office issued a statement that the senator will fight an order to repay nearly $50,000 in living and travel expenses associated with his home in Gatineau, Que., which a Senate committee determined he claimed inappropriately.
“Sen. Brazeau will be seeking greater clarification and will explore all options to have this determination overturned by applying the current policies, rules and regulations pertaining to this matter,” read a statement from Debby Simms, a policy adviser in his office, emailed to media Tuesday.
The statement said this could include calling a public meeting to have the Senate committee on internal economy, budgets and administration, which initiated the investigation into secondary living expenses, explain its decision.
Brazeau, who is on a forced leave of absence from the Senate while he faces charges of assault and sexual assault, was ordered to reimburse the federal government $48,744 in living and related mileage expenses he claimed from April 2011 to March 31 this year.
The recommendation from the Senate committee on internal economy came in a report following an independent investigation by external auditors at Deloitte, both released last Thursday.
Tracking his daily movements through cellular phone and other records, the Deloitte auditors found Brazeau, who declared he lived primarily with his father in Maniwaki, Que., and claimed expenses associated with his rental home in Gatineau, Que., spent only 10 per cent of the time between April 1, 2011 and Sept. 30, 2012 at his primary residence, plus an additional 13 day trips.
The report notes Brazeau was reimbursed $34,619, including accommodations and mileage for trips to Maniwaki, in secondary living expenses during that period.
It also found Brazeau claimed $144.97 for travel between Ottawa and Maniwaki to attend to Senate business “for which there was no documented Senate business while Sen. Brazeau was in Ottawa”
The auditors also found that criteria for determining primary residence, which must be at least 100 kilometres from Parliament Hill for senators to be eligible for up to $22,000 in annual living expenses, to be lacking in the rules and guidelines.
But the committee on internal economy disagreed with that finding in its reports on Brazeau and Senator Mac Harb, who has resigned from Liberal caucus to fight the order to reimburse the expenses. It concluded the forms senators sign when declaring their primary and secondary residences in order to receive the living allowance are clear enough for them to have known better.
That is where Brazeau, who was expelled from the Conservative caucus following his Feb. 7 arrest, takes issue with the committee report.
“It is unclear how the committee could have come to this conclusion when there is no clear definition of what, for purposes of their own policy, constitutes a ‘primary residence,’ ” says the statement from his office.
The committee came to no such conclusion for the report addressing the living expenses of Duffy, who has already reimbursed the $90,172 he claimed for mortgage payments on his home in Kanata, about 22 kilometres from Parliament Hill as well as mileage, meals and incidentals while in the Ottawa area.
The language about the rules and forms being sufficiently clear is missing from the report on Duffy.
The statement from Brazeau’s office also notes he provided all four documents the Senate committee on internal economy requested to establish primary residence — driver’s licence, provincial health card, income tax return and a signed statement indicating where he had voted — and Deloitte considered the indicators to have been met.
“It remains unclear if all other sitting senators meet the primary residency indicators — which Senator Brazeau does — or if they were treated with the same scrutiny, rules, regulations and definitions,” said the statement from Brazeau’s office.
The statement also noted Brazeau met Deloitte auditors twice and provided additional information they requested.
Duffy neither met with Deloitte nor provided additional information the auditors asked for.
The statement from Brazeau’s office says he was ordered to reimburse $34,619 in living expenses and $144.97 in travel expenses from April 2011 to September 2012, but that only includes what is mentioned in the Deloitte report.
The committee report went further, extending the time period and adding interest.
Conservative Sen. Marjory LeBreton, government leader in the Senate, issued a statement Tuesday saying if Harb and Brazeau do not pay the money right away, it will be taken from them.
“(They) must immediately repay inappropriately claimed expenses or the Senate will seize the funds,” said the statement, which noted Duffy had already reimbursed the expenses.
This could be done by withholding pay, but it would be up to the internal economy committee to decide.
The reports containing the recommendations to order Harb and Brazeau to reimburse the expenses have not yet been adopted and no funds could possibly be seized until they are.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Joanna Smith
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